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10 Essential Tips for Planning the Perfect Industry Event

'Tis the season to plan your 2012 event strategy. Here are 10 quick tips to help make event marketing work for your brand, strategy and your bottom line.

1. Don’t Reinvent (Or Compete with) the Wheel

If a non-competitive brand plans to host an event, consider partnering with that company instead of trying to one-up it. Even if your brand is a long-standing household name, you’ll likely tap a new community. A solo attempt to appeal to that company’s audience would be challenging and, without help, risky. The fee you would incur to sponsor the event would replace the money you would spend to solicit attendees on your own — with a smaller personal task list and headache.

2. Paying To Play Is Not Selling Out

Your crucial goal is to avoid coming across as “selling something.” Savvy influencers are unlikely to throw money at flashy promotions that lack novel experience. Therefore, work closely with your partner company early on, and learn from that team's experience and event vision. Steer clear of thinking you can deliver an overused “event in a box.” Instead, get creative by cycling between the digital and live event experience with something their audience wants, not what you want for their audience.

An event can add value to your existing relationships. For example, if your brand has endorsement deals with athletes or celebrities, that talent might be willing to market to an event audience alongside you. Be sure to promote that VIP presence across your partner’s social channels and your own. Everyone wins with a VIP networking opportunity — it’s worth every premium dollar, especially when it means you can add key contacts to your own Rolodex.

4. Support the Community

Consider supporting an organization (for or not for profit) that your target audience is passionate about. Because many organizations can’t afford extensive event planning, your third-party support means a lot. Furthermore, these events are generally easy on the wallet and create brand loyalty with core influencers who attend. Added bonus: This passionate audience is likely to share event photos, posts and other highlights across their social media channels, which, if watermarked with your logo, means a great ROI for your brand.

5. I Scratch Your Back, You Scratch Mine

If you are sponsoring a brand’s event, why not negotiate by asking it to support one of your future events? Establishing these long-term partnerships will benefit your reach within their community. The alliance benefits the partner brand too, netting it more impressions and activity on a larger industry scale. Don’t expect them to repay you in dollars, however, but rather in barter — whether through digital or print ad units or (gasp!) editorial support. This collaboration will save you costs on your bottom line and create a priceless buzz.

6. Be Careful Not to Get Lost in the Brand Parade

CES, SXSW, Blogworld, film festivals, etc. are great places to access reporters and consumers in one place, but these event-saturated gatherings can often get jam-packed. That means it can get difficult to differentiate brand party A from brand party B when everybody is under one roof. There is another high risk: You’ll never know what other brands have in their pockets to easily one-up your flashy spend. Therefore, carefully analyze your full event budget. If you can pull a large crowd without expending too many resources on additional PR and marketing strategies, then a solo event is best. If you need some help, consider paying another brand to manage a guaranteed attendee list. It will mean a better use of precious resources and less of a headache than soliciting your own attendee list.

7. Strategically Navigate Crowded Brand Tiers

It’s hard to predict exactly how many other brands will end up in your partnership circle, but you can anticipate your placement in the tier. If your goal is to generate straight media impressions, for example, your best option is to fork over for the top placement dollars to stamp your name, and thus, guarantee press hits at every possible instance. If you just want into the crowd, pay the minimal amount and get creative with your brand’s onsite presence, being sure to integrate your event partners’ goals with your own. If you find yourself in a crowded tier, remember there’s a lot more power and reach when you activate everyone’s social network and resources for the greater good.

9. You Will Be Very Meticulously Measured Every Step of the Way

Mere estimates of impressions and reach are now unacceptable forms of reporting. Now every hashtag and livestream is not only available, but also immediately collectable, quantifiable and deliverable. Because anyone can potentially double-check your wrap report facts, it’s important to use reliable third party tools to back up your ROI claims. Many of these tools, such as RowFeeder and Klout, require setup prior to the event for comprehensive results, so be sure to set these in motion as soon as you’ve created that event hashtag.

10. “Good, Fast, and Cheap” – You Can Never Have All Three

Event planners always hear this request from our vendors. But let’s flip it on ourselves instead. Although we presumably exhibit pragmatic planning character, we notoriously wait until late in the game to secure partnership deals — in order to negotiate the “last minute deal” price. Therefore, we end up with “fast” and “cheap,” but let the “good” fall short.

For the 2012 event year, reach for the “good” and “cheap” combo instead. Sign up early with your partners. You’ll be pleasantly surprised that getting in on the ground floor before an event becomes non-refundable is very refreshing. Plus, that collaborative, co-branded integrative strategy will net measurable ROI impressions, cultivate true loyalty with your target core market and give you time to create a (perhaps cheaper) event that with a longer tail of impact.

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